Cathy Linton
Catherine "Cathy" Linton is a major character in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. She is the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton, and cousin to Hareton Earnshaw and Linton Heathcliff. Named after her mother, Heathcliff begins to have passion on her by using her as his quest for his revenge and makes her one of his own. She was forced into a relationship to Linton and marries him for Heathcliff to claim inheritance of her home Thrushcross Grange. But after Linton dies, Cathy falls in love and marries Hareton, in hopes that they would bring peace to both houses. Description Cathy was a young woman born and raised in a new generation already dominated by abuse and revenge. In addition, it was all caught up with her, as she changed from being a pretty and witty girl to a selfish and snobbish woman once she is held under Heathcliff's control. Her connection to her parents is relieving the past of what had went wrong. It is also noted that being the daughter of an Earnshaw and a Linton, and becoming the last born member of the Linton family, Cathy would continue to carry on her surname but until she marries her cousin Hareton, she would become Catherine Earnshaw, or Catherine Earnshaw II, and the Linton family dynasty would end, given the fact that Edgar had wanted his only child to be a son and would be able to carry on his family name. This may be the revealed why she was ignored and neglected at birth, mainly because she had no mother to care for her and that she turned to be female instead. It's revealed that she was the other characters in the novel who grew up motherless. Cathy's birth resulted in her mother's premature death and without her presence, she was forced to fend for herself, with only Nelly Dean being served as the mother-figure that she never had. She also had free roam of the property, wanting to explore new areas she has never been to before and even makes up fantasies when she is out adventuring. Storyline Early Years at Thrushcross Grange Catherine Linton was born 7 months premature in March 1784 at Thrushcross Grange at around midnight. Her mother Catherine Earnshaw, died giving birth to her, and despite being born small, weak and originally ignored at birth, Cathy survives and was raised by her father Edgar Linton and Nelly Dean who was assigned to be her guardian and mother-figure. Cathy grows up, and when she is 13 years old, she shares some similar traits like her late mother. She had spent the first years of her life at the Grange since her father forbid her from leaving the property and going near the troubled neighbouring house. Because of this, Cathy grew up without knowing about Wuthering Heights or its inhabitants. She becomes interested in the fairy caves at Penistone Crags which is near the Heights and begs Edgar to take her there, but he refuses. But after Edgar leaves to London to retrieve his nephew from her dying sister and Cathy's aunt Isabella, the girl took this opportunity to ask Nelly to offer her some food, as she was pretending to be a merchant travelling across the Arabian Desert (which is actually the moors). She mounts her pony, leaps over the bushes, and takes off towards the Penistone Crags accompanied by her dog. Along the way, she passes the Heights and spots a gruff, young man around her age. His name was Hareton, and she is immediately interested in him and decides to spend the day with him instead. Wuthering Heights Cathy plays with Hareton at the Heights until Nelly finds her there. The young girl refuses to leave and wants to stay with Hareton. She was informed by Nelly that Hareton is not the son of the Heights' owner, which makes her contemptuous of him. She mocks him at the idea of him being a servant, and he angrily curses at her. A servant tells her that Hareton is her cousin, and she begins to cry, denying that this was true and that her real cousin was in London where her father is picking up and returning home with. She is comforted and told by Nelly that everyone like her has more than one cousin. Afterwards, Cathy and Nelly leave, and on the way back home, Cathy agrees that she will not reveal anything to Edgar about her trip to the Heights. When her cousin Linton Heathcliff arrives at the Grange with Edgar, Cathy is excited to meet him and goes outside on the road to find her father and cousin, but is disappointed when she sees that Linton is a weak and whiny boy around her age. But she looks after and babies him by stroking his hair and kissing his forehead. But shortly after he arrives, Linton is taken to the Heights and Cathy begins to miss him terribly, but forgets about him as time went by. 3 years later, on Cathy's 16th birthday, she goes bird-hunting in the moors with Nelly when she runs ahead of her and into Heathcliff and Hareton. She begins to talk to them and asks Heathcliff is he is Hareton's father. He says he isn't but invites her over to the Heights to meet his actual son. She is intrigued to go, while Nelly decides to accompany her. The young girl is excited at the idea of these new relatives she had just met living close by the Grange. At the Heights, Cathy reunites with her cousin again after 3 years. She also sees Heathcliff as her uncle and asks him if he has even been over to the Grange, if she can visit Linton often, or bring her father over the next time she comes over. She learns about the conflict that had happened between her father Mr. Linton and Heathcliff, but she thought it wrong and insisted that her cousin Linton should come over to play instead. After the boy explained that he is too weak to walk all the way to the other house, Hareton appears, and she questions Heathcliff if his servant really is her cousin, to which he replied. Cathy was offered a tour around the property by Hareton, but when they go outside, she teases him for his illiteracy. After staying until the afternoon, Cathy and Nelly walk back to the Grange, and she scolds her guardian for being like her father and not telling her about Linton living at the Heights. She asks her to keep it a secret about Heathcliff, but the next day, she confronts her father about him being enemies with Heathcliff who she had met the other day and had never told her about it. He explains everything about how the brooding man despises him and his desires for revenge. After being told that she must not see Linton again, Cathy blames Mr. Linton for quarrelling with Heathcliff and wouldn't forgive her uncle for marrying Aunt Isabella. She also states that Mr. Heathcliff wants her and Linton to be friends. She learns about her aunt's troubles with Heathcliff and was told once again to never have any more contact with Heathcliff, Linton and the Heights. She seemed to understand him as she kisses him and does her lessons for a couple of hours. But when she gets ready for bed, she breaks down crying and worries what would Linton think when she doesn't show up to see him tomorrow. Nelly assure her that it isn't worth seeing someone she has barely known. Cathy asks if she can write him a little note saying why she couldn't come and send some of her books over to him. Nelly scolds her not to and the girl barely says good-night to her. As soon as Nelly was out of the room, she gets out of bed and begins to write a letter at her table, that she had kept hidden away while her guardian was in the room. Nelly puts out the candle flame, leaving the girl angry without some light while writing. But she manages to finish the letter she was writing and has a milk-fetcher from a nearby village to deliver it. She continued writing letters until she called Nelly upstairs, knowing that she had just discovered a bundle of her letters, and begs her not to tell her father about it. She is scolded by Nelly about sending off secret letters to Linton and is about to show them to Mr. Linton when Cathy promises she won't write to Linton again and begs her to burn them. The letters were burned by Nelly, and when Cathy wanted to keep one or two, she again threatened to get her into trouble. She goes into her room and appears at teatime with her eyes red, possibly from crying. Her correspondence with Linton has now ended. Throughout the autumn, Cathy would go out for walks with her father among the harvesting fields. But as Edgar falls ill, Cathy feels dull when he couldn't spend enough time with him, and he wants her to read less and exercise more. She begins spending more time with Nelly Dean instead. In late October or early November, Nelly and Cathy go out for a walk on the moors. She was told by her guardian that Edgar may possibly be dying and she should be patient towards him. Cathy says that she loves her father and wouldn't say a word to annoy him. As they entered into the garden, Cathy climbs up on the wall to try to retrieve some fruit from a rose tree, but her hat falls on the other side of the wall. She climbs over the wall to find it, but she is unable to get back up because the ground was low and the trees and bushes covered the wall. As Nelly tries to find a way to open the door, Cathy hears a man on horseback approach her from the other side. It was Heathcliff, and the girl says she cannot speak to him because of how wicked he is. Cathy hears Heathcliff reprimanding her for ending her correspondence with Linton and he may be dying of a broken heart, as well as being suspected of playing mean tricks on him. He informs her that he will be away from the Heights for about a week and she must go see Linton frequently before he leaves. Once she is freed from the wall, Cathy and Nelly walk back home in the rain. When they return to the Grange, Cathy checks on her sleeping father, and has tea with Nelly in the library. Cathy sits on the rug very quiet, until she tells her companion about her guilt of not writing to Linton and she convinces Nelly to bring her to the Heights tomorrow. Marriage to Linton/Romance with Hareton The next day, on a rainy morning, Nelly and Cathy arrive at the Heights. They enter through the farmhouse, where Cathy warms herself by the fireplace and Nelly asks Joseph where Linton is. They hear the boy's whiny, peevish voice calling for Joseph, and the two women entered the room where Linton is. Cathy is delighted to see him again, but Linton asks her not to kiss him because it would take his breath away. She asks him repeatedly if he is happy to see her again, but he first wondered why she stopped writing to him and he says 'yes' on being with his cousin again. When Linton asks her if she could be his wife and to look after him, Cathy says that they should be brother and sister instead of being married, since husbands and wives sometimes hated each other. The two of them get into a heated argument about their fathers, with Cathy defending Edgar and Linton defending Heathcliff. She gets angry and pushes Linton's chair, causing him to fall to the floor and began having a coughing and choking fit. She later tries to apologize to Linton, but he doesn't accept her apology, saying that being pushed to the floor is already having an effect on his frail health. As Cathy leaves, Linton starts writhing on the floor, making her feel bad for him and spends the next hour looking after him by propping him up with pillows and reading poetry with him. She agrees that she will still come to see him. On their way back to the Grange, Cathy says to Nelly that she can easily leave the Grange to see Linton, and she thinks he will recover faster the most she visits him. Nelly doubts he would live longer but the girl assures that he is improving since he arrived at Yorkshire. She also agrees on the idea whenever she would receive her father's permission to go to the Heights alone. When Nelly falls ill with a cold for three weeks, Cathy spends most of her time throughout the day nursing her father and Nelly. At the same time, she had managed to leave the Grange in the evening and goes to the Heights to visit Linton. She has one of the servants helping her sneak out of the house in exchange for books. But after she was caught sneaking back into her room by Nelly after seeing Linton, Cathy becomes distressed from trying to lie and she tells her the truth of her secret visits to the Heights. She also recalls one visit where Hareton tells her that he can read his name carved above the door but she laughs at him when he can't read the numbers "1500". While she goes inside the house to be with Linton, Hareton bursts in angry and throws Linton onto the floor. Personalities/Appearance Relationships Appearances in Film/TV External Links Category:Female characters Category:Brontë Characters Category:Love interests Category:Daughters Category:Major Characters Who Had a Happy Ending Category:Characters